Damaris Egurrola is a 23-year-old footballer who was born in the United States but who is half-Dutch and half-Spanish.
Nevertheless, Egurrola decided to represent the Netherlands and has been playing with them since 2022, despite having played a single match for Spain.
She started her footballing journey at Athletic Bilbao in 2014 before moving to WSL’s Everton in 2020 for one season.
In 2021, Egurrola joined Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and gradually became a key but unsung player for the team, and that’s exactly why we would like to shed some light on the player’s importance within the team, providing an analysis of her playmaking abilities and her roles in Olympique Lyonnais’ tactics through a Damaris Egurrola scout report on the player.
Damaris Egurrola Roles At Olympique Lyonnais
Egurrola’s roles at Olympique Lyonnais are varied, diverse, and fundamental to the team.
In fact, the 23-year-old is the player responsible for linking defence and attack since she usually plays in front of the defence to distribute the ball towards the wings to the central midfielders or the striker.
Egurrola is also very important to the team because she absorbs most of the opposing high pressing when getting the ball and knows exactly how to get away from it using body feints and anticipation to launch an attack.
The following picture highlights Egurrola’s passing abilities, particularly her progressive passes this season.
This shows the big number of successful progressive passes being executed towards the final third and sometimes directly towards the box.
This indeed shows that Egurrola didn’t use many long passes towards the box this season, yet that doesn’t mean her long passing is poor or unreliable; the opposite is true.
Damaris Egurrola Progressive Passes Map
The 23-year-old is also one of the most consistent players in terms of passing accuracy and knowing how important accuracy can be for this exact role.
The fact that Damaris Egurrola is excelling in this regard has been somewhat overlooked or taken for granted.
It has never been a simple or easy task to succeed in this regard.
For Egurrola, having an average of 83.5% passing accuracy per match is an excellent trait that should be highlighted.
Moreover, it should be noted that the Netherlands international is a left-footed player, and she is also able to pass using her right foot without compromising precision; this skill helps her significantly in certain situations, especially when surrounded by opposing players.
At Lyon, Egurrola doesn’t only act as a defensive midfielder; in reality, she is often given the freedom to advance towards the opponent’s half and play a major part in the team’s build-up and playmaking.
Being able to provide key passes regularly makes Egurrola even more fundamental in Olympique Lyonnais’s line-up and perhaps what helps her execute these key passes recurrently is the fact that opponents often fear players like Lindsey Horan, Amandine Henry, Sara Däbritz, Catarina Macario but rarely expect Egurrola to be a pivotal player in Olympique Lyonnais’ attacks.
This gives Damaris Egurrola an advantage, allowing her to play without tension and eventually find passing pathways in a less complicated manner.
This passing map shows the frequency with which Egurrola passes on average and indicates that she is at the heart of Olympique Lyonnais’ midfield and, therefore, her presence in the line-up is heavily needed despite being an unsung player and not really a “star” for fans since her roles are not very explicit.
Damaris Egurrola Pass Map
Damaris Egurrola Playmaking
Egurrola is actually one of the best left-footed passers at the moment and she has been proving this, especially during this season, and will aim at confirming her talent during the upcoming years if she continues improving, which is very likely given her age.
In fact, the areas that the 23-year-old can improve are mainly her goalscoring abilities and attempts, as well as her dribbling skills.
Increasing and varying her goalscoring options would be key for the team when they run out of options or when the players are all strictly marked.
Egurrola should therefore be encouraged to increase her shooting from distance attempts and efficiency, for instance, as well as being more present inside the box during set pieces, even though this already happens, and she has already been able to score goals using her headers.
For dribbling, she indeed excels in terms of body feints and confusing her markers; however, it would be very beneficial for her to work further on her dribbling techniques to surpass her markers more easily and frequently.
When it comes to passing and ball protection, it can be said that Egurrola is actually about to become one of the best in the world and is already outstanding in this regard.
The Netherlands international often provides key passes that meet her teammates’ movements, even when the space in front of Egurrola appears crowded with opposing players.
She often finds a way to pass the ball between her opponents to reach the destined player at the right time and with the needed amount of power.
The following example shows how intelligent Egurrola’s passes can be as she received the ball in a key area and quickly noticed her teammate’s movement and therefore had to pass the ball instantly.
She quickly used her right foot to pass the ball accurately and without issues towards her teammate’s movement and at the back of Soyaux’s defensive line.
This type of pass has been recurrent, and Damaris Egurrola is usually reliable in this regard.
When she advances towards the box, she usually waits for the striker’s movement without the ball to quickly provide her with a key pass.
That’s what happened in this picture when Eugénie Le Sommer was moving without the ball and Egurrola automatically spotted her movement and gave her a key pass.
In addition to key passes, Egurrola is usually instructed to act as a third centre-back in the build-up phase and receive the ball from the goalkeeper, starting the attacks from the defence.
When she does so, she often relies on long passes to serve her teammates more quickly, especially when behind in the score or when noticing that the opposing team is leaving some space at the back.
Egurrola executes these long passes efficiently most of the time but can improve her rate even further since her long-passing accuracy is actually 60.4%.
The following example further highlights Egurrola’s long-passing since, in this example, it clearly shows how she can exploit the opposing defensive organisation’s mistakes efficiently with just one long pass towards the wing but at the back of the defensive line.
Such passes can create a lot of danger, especially when the striker moves well during the execution of such passes in order to be well-positioned when the winger receives the ball, and that’s precisely what happened in this action.
This picture also shows that the former Everton midfielder has the freedom to act like a central midfielder and not just as a player who plays in front of the defence and doesn’t join attacks or remain at the back, and this gives numerical superiority to Lyon when attacking.
Ball protection is one of Egurrola’s best traits, as it allows her to gain time over her opponents and helps her resist continuous opposing pressure.
Additionally, combining ball protection and body feints is a key combination that enables defensive midfielders like Damaris Egurrola to evade marking smoothly and effectively.
The 23-year-old masters these two traits and can become even quicker in this regard, which would help her exclude markers more fluidly and automatically, thereby saving time and effort.
Furthermore, the Netherlands international knows how to play with her back towards the marker and often looks at her surroundings to spot pressing attempts and prepare her reaction without showing that she is aware of the attack.
In this match against Paris Saint-Germain, she spotted a pressing attempt and allowed the opponent to make an interception attempt before getting the ball away from her, obliging her to commit a foul.
This highlights Egurrola’s tactical awareness and her ability to analyse her surroundings to a great level.
Damaris Egurrola Comparison With Keira Walsh
We tried to compare Egurrola to an excellent player like former Manchester City Women and current Barcelona star Keira Walsh to assess whether Egurrola is at the level of a player like Walsh or if she is slightly behind the England international.
Damaris Egurrola & Keira Walsh Radar Charts
In fact, according to the graphic, it can be seen that Egurrola’s level and statistics are not significantly behind those of Walsh, as each player excels in some aspects and lags behind in others.
Damaris Egurrola has got better statistics in terms of dangerous passes per match, aerial duels and positioning.
And at the same time, Walsh is better in terms of defensive duels, progressive passes, passing accuracy, and the number of passes per match, especially in dribbling.
Notably, the two players are quite similar, but with slight differences in terms of defensive duels won, progressive passes, and passing accuracy.
To resume, Egurrola’s statistics are actually very good, and we have been able to compare her to a fundamental player like Walsh without finding drastic gaps between the two players.
Damaris Egurrola should improve her dribbling rate and continue working on her passing to remain among the best and become even more crucial in this regard.
Conclusion
Damaris Egurrola is actually one of Olympique Lyonnais’s most important players, particularly when it comes to midfield and she has been putting on some excellent performances this season.
Being able to improve and confirm her performance even further during the next period would certainly help the 23-year-old Dutch international gain more recognition, especially if she works harder on her dribbling skills and contributes more to goals.
